Category: Sleeping dogs

It’s Friday so that means it’s time to feature lovely flowers. Today we’re going to take a little different tack by showcasing one of the most gorgeous flowering trees in the Denver area…the show-stopping Linden tree.A reliably large shade tree (they can reach 50-130 feet at maturity), they adapt well to Colorado’s wide-ranging climate and alkaline soils. Linden’s have a very flexible wood making them ideal as wind breaks. In late spring/early summer, they burst with tiny yellow, fragrant flowers and right now they are at their peak. The heart-shaped, green leaves will turn yellow this autumn.

Linden trees are not particularly bothered by most common tree pests and are somewhat slow-growing with slender, upturned branches creating a dense, uniform crown with a conical shape. They are easy to grow, hardy to -40°F with maximum elevation at 7,000 ft. The trees can discharge a fair amount of nectar which attracts bees so you won’t want to park under them for long since the nectar can damage the finish if left on too long. But the scent is heavenly and a highlight of our morning walks. Sometimes I just stop and inhale that sweet fragrance for several moments. It’s a wonderful zen moment in the early morning quiet.

Close-up of Linden tree flowers

In addition to today being Flower Friday, it’s also “Take Your Dog to Work Day” so Sam and Elsa will be hanging out with me in the studio today. Will you be able to take your pup to work with you? Have a great Friday and an even better weekend!

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Did you wake up easily enough today? Not the best way to start out the week, is it? Speaking of this week, we’re off to the hospital for a few days so our comments may (or may not) be late. Hopefully we can get some things set in advance on the scheduler but if not, now you know why. Now to grab that 87th cup of coffee. Have a great week.

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There have been a number of articles of late about the virtues of and various issues having to do with dogs sleeping with their uprights and Sam wanted to weigh in on the topic. As Sam and Elsa are around 50 lb., that can pose some interesting positioning in a queen sized bed if there are any plans to spread out, but mostly with regard to who gets the pillows. But that’s another issue. Some people think dogs are just too dirty to sleep in bed with their owner. Have you ever had a toddler sleep with you? You suddenly wake up from a dead sleep and gasp…’Oh my gawd, what the heck is THAT smell?” That theory doesn’t hold much water with me. Besides I brush the dogs frequently (even if they may object at the grooming they sure strut their stuff afterwards). Frankly, they’re probably cleaner than me some nights and rarely drool.

And while they don’t sleep with me every night, I enjoy it when they want to cuddle. “Cuddle” being the operative word. Notice I didn’t say “hog,” guys?

So why do dogs and people like to sleep together? I can think of a number of reasons. First, who doesn’t enjoy the comfort of a warm body next to you in the middle of the night? And the sweet rhythmic breathing makes the pawfect white noise if you need it. It’s all good until a certain Ninja starts snoring, but I digress.

Their presence promotes calm and a feeling of safety. It’s also a great stress reliever. If you’re into meditation, it’s easy to listen to the deep breathing of dogs. When you concentrate on the breaths, it’s easier to fall and stay asleep. Who isn’t in need of a little stress relief? Besides, don’t you just love those little puppy sighs and dream whimpers.

Soon enough winter will be upon us and that means it’ll definitely be a two-dog night. Sure there are down comforters, but there’s nothing quite like a dog next to you for staying warm on a cold winter’s night.

Finally, the unconditional love dogs provide can help ward off depression. Many of our patients ask if Sam can get up on the bed with them and if there aren’t lots of tubes or wires, we’re happy to accommodate their request. Plus your dog enjoys it too when they’re hogging the pillows lying next to you. It’s a safe guess you probably figured out I’m definitely in the “it’s fine and dandy” category. Which camp are you in?

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While some of you may be knee-deep in the white stuff, there are others who are already baking in 80+F (27C) degrees of sunshine. Isn’t it intriguing to see how seemingly conflicting or opposite forces may be parallel or coupled, and yet interrelated in the natural world as well as they are around our Ranch. This yin and yang duality of current weather conditions seems a little like these two knuckleheads, “Pete and Repeat” ~ otherwise known as the Sam and Elsa show.

Here’s hoping your Monday is just the beginning of a ‘wagnificent’ week!

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Hello everyone, it’s me Elsa…fabulous Ninja sister to Sam. I stole the blog from my naive brother by flipping a coin for it. Unfortunately he lost. I won (nah, nah, nah, nah, nah). Anyway, even though I won the coin flip gotta love those two sided coins, I promised it would only be a short post.

My mom complains says I’m too hard to photograph because I’m a black dog. Even in a well lite location my gorgeous facial features disappear especially if my fur is a little long. So after she whined about not being able to see my face yet again when I was chillin’ yesterday, I told her I would fix it. Well, what do you think?

The cross black dogs must bear

As you can tell we had a nice relaxing weekend, how about you? Do anything exciting?

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While we did manage to get through one of the most unpleasant election cycles in modern history we must now begin to comprehend what exactly just happened and go from here. I don’t know about you, but my skin is raw from constantly having to scrub the stench off of it. For now, I’m taking my cue from Sam and trying to to figure out what all this means. Fair warning, posts may be intermittent and/or grim for a while. 🙁

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Ok, picture this. It’s the middle of the night and the call of nature wakes you up. More like screams its ugly head off, but you still resist. The crisp autumn air is a definite deterrent so you roll over and think, it’ll go away soon. Twenty minutes later, your bladder continues to send messages to your brain to get up and take care of this. You’re wide awake now so you succumb to your brain’s nagging and drag your sorry butt out of bed…shivering. You quietly tiptoe past the snoring fur-kids, quietly closing the bedroom door so as not to disturb anyone, walking toward the bathroom. Then you step on one of these babies. O.U.C.H. Ever step on one of these gizmos of pure torture? We kick or walk over these things 87 times a day. Elsa drags them from one end of the house to the other and I love that both fur-kids enjoy these beef hooves, but yikes, those bad boys will make you howl like a banshee if you step on them with bare feet when you’re somewhat half asleep.

Suddenly you’re hoping around on one foot, yelling every HBO word you’ve ever heard, kicking those hummers every which way and the racket of all that yelling combined with skittering hooves across hardwood floors crashing into walls and furniture has woken up the entire household up with you asking everyone, “Who the [blank] left these things lying around?!?!” The sleepy faces facing you just nod, mumble and shuffle back to bed. You’re left wide awake with the you-know-what scared out of you, blood pouring from a toe and too mad to pee. Why is there no justice for mom? Would I be less crabbish if I stepped on a squeaking stuffie in the middle of the night? Yeah probably not, but at least I wouldn’t have to triage my injury before getting back to sleep in the freezing dark.

Note to self: think about getting one of those IED robots to clear these “land mines” out before you going to bed to avoid this far too often repeated scenario.

Hope your re-entry into the work week was far less traumatic and you had a great night’s sleep following a beautiful Autumn weekend.